Christmas past, Christmas present

Three major department stores still opened their door's daily downtown in downtown Cleveland in 1980. We had earlier positioned our book store on East Ninth Street near the corner of Huron Road , within a quick walk of Public Square, home of May Company and Higbee's, and Playhouse Square which was home to the flagship Halle's Department Store. All three of these king sized multiple floored department stores served as " anchor stores" for downtown shoppers. Many of us small retailers hoped to complement these diverse retail giants offerings , by merit of displaying for sale our unique specialties, and in turn found some success in the crowds of shopper's drawn downtown to the big three department stores..... Our early years as booksellers required us to reinvest our receipts into expanding our inventory in classic mom and pop fashion. We did not shop often at the downtown department stores , save the holiday season for family gifts , preferring thrift stores and estate sales for our personal needs. Fresh food and groceries were purchased at the near bye Central Market , and a number of small ethnic groceries that were neighbors in the Central Market district. Life was simple .The USA was in a period of economic downturn in the early 1980's , and I remember the meager sales of those early years as we worked hard to establish our business. Frugal and prudent decisions made then ultimately paid off in increased trade and expansion into and through the 1990's. Success was enjoyed , hard work rewarded.............Holidays downtown were an enjoyable season until the closing of the three department stores , and the destruction of the Central Market district . The Central Market was replaced with two larger than scale sports stadiums and in turn attracted the cheap drunken crowds who now barf and lunge about downtown in place of the retail shoppers.......Though we closed our book stores doors a few years ago to the public due to the inclement retail conditions due to the poor planning of downtown we retain great memories of all the many holiday seasons that we were open and the fine customer base we served prior to the retreat of downtown into the drunk zone that it is today. We also remain in our now crowded digs of all these many years , without much hope in ever seeing a true revival of any activity here that resembles Christmas past. We ship a fair amount of books around the world every week. Some outsiders would say that is great and peachy keen , though it does not come close to the function of hand selling books to eager clients. This business of retail book selling downtown is not possible in any event due to the time management and size constraints placed upon us while we service our internet / mail order book business. Receipts are tougher to lash together into profit these days , and it would be nice to have a retail option downtown and increase our sales , though no reasonable space is available to us at this time. The formula of " cheap rent" as a bottom line requisite is a very real consideration for any party engaged in the buying and selling of used items such as books and antiques. Rents are no longer " cheap" downtown , and thus no new retail activity is found around these parts today. All the hot air and ballyhoo pitchmen and development big shots that paint downtown as an up and coming place of business seem to forget that a start up retail business needs affordable rent, or the ability to purchase a building and invest as incentive . No incentives are given to the smaller interested concerns , so downtown Cleveland remains void of new retail start ups save the greasy food and cheap booze variety that resemble the hellish drunken and debauched vision of " Potterville" as portrayed in Frank Capra's ultimate Christmas film It's A Wonderful Life"...... Crime downtown is another concern. To the naive visitor attracted to the "free" ,two hour parking down the block near the Erie Street Cemetery , remeber you get what you pay for. Plenty of those attracted to this free parking get their automobile window glass kicked out , and the salable contents of their automobile swiped , or their car stolen. And this is merely property crime. Plenty of homicides occur downtown as well. As do assaults , rapes , and armed robberies. Do not take my word for it , just monitor the television news or inquire via the hard statistics gathered by the United States Government. If you want a pretty and cleaned up fictional tale that downplays the true crime statistics downtown inquire with one of the downtown boosterism organizations that have sprouted up like warts in these parts. Professional liars telling prospective clients convenient and professional lies...... And do not forget the scam known as daily or event parking downtown. Downtown Cleveland's physical footprint is largely comprised of surface parking lots , and the bandits that run them are not opposed to charging whatever the market will bear to the rural or suburban visitor that might be in need of parking their automobile. Twenty to twenty five dollars per vehicle seems the going rate these days for any event of consequence downtown , whether near Playhouse Square or for some sports shindig. Only the minor league hockey games get a cheaper rate , due only to low attendance.Many of these parking lot " opperators" collect the customers monies and then depart , leaving all safety concerns to the party they collected parking funds from. Easily the largest single negative influence in downtown Cleveland in need for correction is the scam known as surface parking. The ugly surface parking lot must be reformed or go away all together before any positive retail growth can occur ! ..... We derive some joy now from keeping a small stack of childrens books near our front door , and " gifting" some of these volumes to potential visitor's to our book store that we have to turn away. Always asking parents permission , we prefer to give a children's book to a young visitor , and see the actual appreciation of receiving a book as a gift. Most of us as youngsters learned to read via some form of children's book , and it is nice to know that this is one tradition the internet has yet to interfere with. This simple exercise never seems to fail to produce a smile on the child's face , and I hope that someday we will find larger quarters and be able to open a retail space once again. Right now , the corporate interests have taken over most of what was once a vibrant interesting downtown Cleveland , replacing it with fewer , though more odious , and certainly more expensive choices ground level. I remember an early Christmas eve thirty odd years ago just after opening our book store , walking a few blocks to the Italian food store near the Central market at East Fourth Street and Huron , which is now an empty lot, and being so grateful to have sold enough books earlier in the day to purchase the meager gifts of dried fruits , cheeses , salamis , bagged pistachio nuts , imported confections, and jugs of wine to provide as gifts to friends and family. Did not have much time or funds to provide with , so this unique food store was both business neighbor and a friendly down to earth place to shop. Barrels of olives adorned the entrance , and the rich odors of ripe cheese , cured meats , and fragrant herbs gave this humble merchants space a quiet dignity that is lost in the marketing mania of today's business world downtown. These places and events are but memories today , and I can only hope for a complete meltdown of the current sad circus that is downtown today , so that from the rubble might rise again a spirit of a saner future. Book Selling Time! Only one downtown Cleveland Department store really sticks out in my mind as worthy of a book treatment of it's history , and you can purchase a copy of Christpher Wood's HALLE'S MEMOIRS OF A FAMILY DEPARTMENT STORE from us for a great Christmas gift. Wood's large and illustrted history traces the Halle retail concern from it's inception as a furrier near Public Square in the late nineteenth century to it's sale to Marshall Field's and eventual closing in 1982. Seems just like yesterday! Best wishes to my Family , John and Kim

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